help with my lavender please!

dollparts

olly300 wrote: »

The worse time to move lavender is in the summer better to move it early autumn or failing that spring especially if the plant is big.

One issue you could have if you are using compost is that it's too rich. Lavender likes poor soil.

When I plant mine in the ground I only add sand and grit to it to make it drain freer as I have clay soil. So if you don't live in a clay area add garden soil from somewhere else in the garden.

OOOPS! I didn't know that, thanks for the info. My soil is acidic but its roots were in compost so that explains why its not so good. Do you recommend I just leave it until it autumn to add more garden soil?

tanith

samuela66 wrote: »

Thankyou tanith,

will the flowers come back it I trim???

sam

Not till next year sam... but they will be better for a trim or try that tip of pinching them out early in the year..

Kay_Peel

Another thing about Lavender: it hates acidic soil.

I put a handful of lime around the base of the plants around March. Lime counteracts the acidity and improves the soil without feeding it. As Olly says, it thrives in poor soil - the drier the better.

As soon as it starts growing in Spring, I take off a few shoots, remove the bottom leaves and stick the cuttings in a pot with lots of vermiculite and sand. The cuttings that I took in April/May are bursting with roots and flowering. In late August I will put them into individual pots and put them in dry shade over winter.

I make sure that I have a lot of new plants because Lavender is relatively short-lived. It gets woody and the bottom branches start to die off after 4-5 years. I have a much beloved Lavender with sentimental memories, but it's on it's last legs and really I should dig it up and bin it - but not before I take at least a dozen cuttings!

janibrown

Kay_Peel wrote: »

Another thing about Lavender: it hates acidic soil.

I put a handful of lime around the base of the plants around March. Lime counteracts the acidity and improves the soil without feeding it. As Olly says, it thrives in poor soil - the drier the better.

As soon as it starts growing in Spring, I take off a few shoots, remove the bottom leaves and stick the cuttings in a pot with lots of vermiculite and sand. The cuttings that I took in April/May are bursting with roots and flowering. In late August I will put them into individual pots and put them in dry shade over winter.

I make sure that I have a lot of new plants because Lavender is relatively short-lived. It gets woody and the bottom branches start to die off after 4-5 years. I have a much beloved Lavender with sentimental memories, but it's on it's last legs and really I should dig it up and bin it - but not before I take at least a dozen cuttings!

Can you tell me how to take cuttings of a lavender plant please I have 1 but find them quite expensive to buy so this could save me some money as I would like to grow a lavender hedge in a couple of years
Many Thanks
Jani :D:D

dollparts

Kay_Peel wrote: »

Another thing about Lavender: it hates acidic soil.

I put a handful of lime around the base of the plants around March. Lime counteracts the acidity and improves the soil without feeding it. As Olly says, it thrives in poor soil - the drier the better.

As soon as it starts growing in Spring, I take off a few shoots, remove the bottom leaves and stick the cuttings in a pot with lots of vermiculite and sand. The cuttings that I took in April/May are bursting with roots and flowering. In late August I will put them into individual pots and put them in dry shade over winter.

I make sure that I have a lot of new plants because Lavender is relatively short-lived. It gets woody and the bottom branches start to die off after 4-5 years. I have a much beloved Lavender with sentimental memories, but it's on it's last legs and really I should dig it up and bin it - but not before I take at least a dozen cuttings!

Oh this info is great, thanks

Forgive me, when you say a handful of lime what do you mean?

As they love dry soil, do you mean they should not be watered as often as daily?

dollparts

I have now bought some lime in preparation for the autumn, I just hope the grumpy looking thing makes it through the summer

katiel

Kay_Peel wrote: »

Here's a tip for next year.

When lavender starts to grow shoots in Spring, pinch out the top of a third of the shoots. Two weeks later, pinch out another third of shoots. This means that you get more shoots, more blooms and a succession of blooms over a longer a period.
Give it a try!

Does this work for the Spanish/French bobble-headed lavenders as well as English? I find them much harder to grow generally.

ERICS_MUM

What a lovely thread, thanks for all the good ideas.


Linda xx

dollparts

As well as all the great advice here I came across this site which I have found really useful.



http://everything-lavender.com/index.html

hethmar

Im surprised that someone says their lavender is only just coming out, my French lavender border is virtually over now and my big tubs of english lavender are looking very pale and tired too. I need to work out how to have a succession of lavender throughout the summer. I guess the above pinching idea would slow down things a bit but I wonder if different types of lavender is the way to have blooms from early summer right through to autumn